UN report says Africa now has most people facing hunger

Africa has become the continent with the largest number of people facing hunger for the first time, according to a UN report released Tuesday.

The annual report on food security and nutrition, prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization and four other UN agencies, said global hunger has eased in recent years, but progress has been uneven.

David Laborde, director of the FAO's agrifood economics division, said the "centre of gravity of hunger" had moved from Asia to Africa. He said China had addressed its hunger problem over the past 25 years and that India was making active efforts to resolve its own.

The report estimated that hunger affected 309 million people in Africa last year, equal to 20 percent of the continent's population. Asia followed with 292 million people affected, or six percent of its population.

The UN agencies estimated that the share of the world population facing hunger fell from 8.6 percent in 2022 to 7.8 percent in 2025. They said this represented a drop of 43 million people, to 645 million, but remained above the level seen before the Covid pandemic.

The report said undernourishment in Africa has been rising since 2017, although the latest estimates point to signs of a turnaround in 2025. It also said the share of people in Africa unable to afford a healthy diet has increased since 2021, while it has fallen in other regions.

Two-thirds of Africans, or 66.6 percent, cannot afford a healthy diet, more than double the level in Asia, according to the report. It encouraged African countries to prioritise changes in the animal-source food sector, which it described as the most expensive food group in the region.

The report said Africa has faced severe climate-related shocks in recent years, while conflicts have made the situation worse. Laborde said conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo weigh heavily on people who cannot access their land or have lost income.

The UN warned in May that 20 million people face acute food insecurity because of the war in Sudan. It also warned in June that a prolonged Middle East war could push millions more people into acute hunger.

Laborde said the effects of rising energy and fertiliser costs linked to the war remain limited for now, but added that the crisis is not over.